More Investment in Long-Form

One thing I have discovered is that when it comes to intellectual content, we don't need to bamboozle ourselves by subjecting ourselves to a great quantity of long-form content, but pay much more attention to the quality of long-form content with depth.  If my past experiences have taught me one thing about content which challenges my intellectual intelligence, it is failure to stay with the content long enough to work the content - so instead of deep learning, the experiences are superficial learning - enough to feel like I have learned something but not anywhere enough where I have appreciated the argument, or the deeper nuance of the work.

Long-form is not mainstream but it is also the avenue where we find the best minds and thus Yellow Intelligence is taking the road least traveled.  The irony of long-form is that there is so many great magazines which are a source of long-form but the most popular content is not necessarily the best or the most relevant to the kind of exposure that suits my learning.  This means that I miss out on the minds of people that require patience to listen to.  A good example of these minds is demonstrated in a conference discussion about long-form journalism.   That the video is nearly 2 hours long again reiterates the challenge of seeking long-form that is appropriate and relevant to one's own learning. 

No matter how anyone looks at this kind of content, the usual response is to browse this.  Breaking down such a video into segments suits a short-attention span but it does nothing for valuing the content - or in the case of the above video, a glimpse into appreciating the back-end of the Atlantic Magazine and realizing what it takes for journalists to get their stories out.

How this content becomes a commodity is a sign of our times but that should not get in the way of my desire to nudge up my own Yellow Intelligence - unless I am as time deficient as the next man and I fail to listen deeply.  The alternative choices of media may offer superficial fluff like watching a lot of streaming news - when a similiar focus on quality would be far more insightful in reality. 

The value of Yellow Intelligence is not in becoming an intellectual, but appreciating the intellectual ability to reason, to form arguments and pay attention to the value of slow attention, rather than the fast-twitch attention which we are now familiar with in digital streams. 

For a time I did begin reading Paris Review interviews but it was not a conscious attempt to elevate personal appreciation of deep intellect.  If I start with one serious work over a week that is better than skimming this space - for what I then end up skimming is important skills and insights that are missed or at least fail to form because media content has become a speed habit and not a quality development.

When I listen to the Atlantic debate in the video, it might sound boring and dry, but what I am looking at is assessing what is going on in the heads of these journalism and how they respond to each other and how that provides insights into the learned abilities shared in the talk.

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